


platonic love

by cherrywin



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Platonic Relationships, lapslock, this is so soft im Sad ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-22 18:49:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19676959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherrywin/pseuds/cherrywin
Summary: he asks one of the managers if they can get a day off, just one. if they can use it for chenle, help him feel slightly better again. the manager is slightly hesitant, but renjun tells him that they haven't got anything particularly important that's going on. finally, he nods. renjun grins.





	platonic love

**Author's Note:**

> listen ok liSTEN i had this lil idea in my twt drafts for idk how long but this entire fic is basically ":( chenle tying up renjuns hair in lil space buns :(" that's it that's the fic
> 
> also im super creative w my titles if u haven't noticed already (ignore the lyrical part where they talk abt wanting to "fall in love" but more the platonic part of the song ok)
> 
> title: [platonic love](https://youtu.be/KJLYikmDoIM) \- snuper

chenle's been feeling down recently.

renjun can see it in the way he drags his feet around, the constant fidgeting, and how he sits quietly in their group conversations instead of making little remarks or giggling.

he asks one of the managers if they can get a day off, just one. if they can use it for chenle, help him feel slightly better again. the manager is slightly hesitant, but renjun tells him that they haven't got anything particularly important that's going on. finally, he nods. renjun grins.

chenle is sleeping when renjun pushes his door open, quiet as he can. he's on his back with his arms in the air, blanket thrown haphazardly over his body with a leg sticking out. he sits at the edge of the bed, rests a gentle hand on chenle's shoulder.

"hey," renjun whispers, shaking him gently. chenle offers a sniff in response. "chenle, wake up."

it's around nine in the morning—if this had been a day with schedules, they would have already been out the door and well on the way to their destination. lucky for them, though, it isn't.

chenle sits up slightly, rubbing his eyes in confusion. "whuh? are we goin' somewhere?" he blinks sleepy eyes at renjun, lips pushed into a pout.

"no, not today. i asked the manager-hyungs if we could get a day off. to, you know, do some stuff."

chenle frowns. "why would you do that?"

renjun sighs. "you need a break, chenle. we all do. but recently you haven't been yourself. it's worrying me."

"you're not my dad," chenle says, bringing his legs up and swinging them around renjun to stand up. "you're not kun-ge. you don't need to worry about me, 'cause i'm fine. i don't need people worrying about me."

he stumbles, and renjun reaches his arms out to steady him. "you idiot," renjun says, pulling him down. "why do you never listen to me? we're all having a day off and we're going to do activities that aren't stressful or too hard on our bodies."

"i can worry about myself," chenle insists, pushing himself up and off the bed. "you don't. none of you should be worrying about me."

renjun huffs in frustration. "can you just—listen to me for, like, two seconds?" chenle stares at him. there's a fiery defiance in his eyes that renjun has never seen before, one that makes him do a double take. he's seen chenle mad before, but only at trivial little things, such as video games or the amount of water jisung puts into the rice. "we, all of us, are staying home. if you even think of leaving we will all dog pile onto you so you physically cannot leave."

renjun watches the line of chenle's jaw as he clenched it, probably in frustration or annoyance. he doesn't care anymore.

"fine," chenle says, walking out of the room and leaving renjun sitting on the bed wondering when chenle grew up so much.

—

the day starts with a combined breakfast effort. jaemin makes his famous caramel bread popcorn, donghyuck offers smart little comment from the side of the kitchen while snacking on various fruits, and renjun is trying to figure out why the hdmi cable is refusing to work. there's a collective shriek when mark attempts to use scissors in order to speed up the fruit-cutting process before he's shooed out of the kitchen by a nagging donghyuck.

jisung comes and sits next to him, at some point. renjun is cussing under his breath in quiet mandarin, still fiddling with the cable, getting increasingly frustrated as the cord decides that it isn't going to work on the one day of which it would be greatly needed. jisung sets a gentle hand atop his, and with a soft murmur of, "i've got this, hyung," renjun backs away. he checks the television is on the correct setting and that the laptop is on, unplugging the cord and making confused little noises when something doesn't go the way he expected it to.

chenle decides to join them, sitting silently beside jisung and watching his fingers work. renjun notices that there are dark circles beneath his eyes, face a shade too pale to be healthy. "isn't it like this?" chenle says quietly, reaching over and clicking something. the television screen flickers to life and jisung cheers. chenle sits back with a self-satisfied grin, standing up and heading for the hallway.

renjun trusts jisung and jeno to pick something for the entirety of them to watch, something that won't make any of them fall asleep and keep them entertained throughout however long breakfast will happen to be.

the bathroom door is locked when he tries to open it. "chenle? are you done?"

there's the sound of the toilet flushing and the sink running, but no response. he can wait. it doesn't take long, the lock unclicking and door being pulled back. chenle sniffs, and renjun goes into protective mode.

"hey, hey, what's going on?"

he doesn't have to bend down to look into chenle's eyes anymore, rather the other way around. chenle turns his head to the side and wipes at his face stubbornly. "'s fine. don't worry about it."

his voice betrays him, cracking halfway through his speaking.

renjun sucks his lip into his mouth. he's worried, of course, but chenle is stubborn and doesn't want to let the others know when something is burdening him or when he feels slightly off. instead, he wraps his arms around chenle in an uncharacteristic show of affection and tells him that "it'll be okay soon."

—

on their planned agenda for the day, jisung has written "hair salon".

"i just thought we could, y'know, play around 'nd stuff. like with plaiting or things like that," is his excuse. jaemin coos at him and calls him cute, reaches over to pinch his cheek. renjun watches chenle swallow from the corner of his eye.

"come do my hair, chenle," renjun says, patting the empty space beside him. chenle startles, eyes wide and mouth open. he looks ridiculously cute. he nods, bringing over a comb and some hair ties that jeno had managed to find.

donghyuck ties mark's hair all at the top of his head and nearly dies from laughter at how mark glares at him. jeno, jaemin and jisung do a sort or hair-braiding train, which, if renjun has to admit, doesn't look like a bad idea.

" _your hair is a lot longer now,_ " chenle says in gentle mandarin, running the comb through it. it's therapeutic, like a soft scalp massage.

" _yeah,_ " is all he says in response. " _what are you gonna do with it?_ "

chenle hums in response, gathering two hair ties and sweeping the hair together. " _you'll have to wait and see._ "

he sounds smug and confident, much more like the chenle that renjun has come to know and adore much like a younger brother. he huffs out a laugh under his breath, fiddling with a loose thread in the carpet. jeno has finished braiding jisung's hair into a tiny french plait, and makes a little noise of content.

"that looks cool, hyung," chenle tells him, tying the part of renjun's hair he's scraped into his hand. "you're really good at it."

jeno grins at him. "thank you, lele." he watches as chenle does whatever he's doing, elbows rested on his knees and eyes watchful beneath the lenses of his glasses. "can i ask what you're doing?"

chenle must open his mouth, because there's a slight pause before he answers, "secret."

jeno lets out an overexaggerated groan. "fine."

chenle is bundling up hair on the other side of renjun's head now, humming quietly as he does so. it's relaxing, and renjun can feel himself dozing off. jaemin makes a noise of satisfaction, jisung seemingly finished with his work on jaemin's hair.

"okay, now i just gotta…" chenle reaches over to grab some more hair supplies from their pile of acquired objects from around their dorm. renjun fights the urge to jab chenle in the ribs. "okay, hold still?"

the pink of his tongue is visible from where it peeks out of his lips in concentration, humming gone. he's in full-focus mode, eyebrows furrowed and jaw set. when he's done he sits back and inspects his work with a critical gaze. then he grins, eyes curving up sweetly. "done."

donghyuck makes a pterodactyl noise from where he's standing in the kitchen devouring watermelon slices. "oh, you look so cute!"

the others all agree with him, jeno and chenle taking their phones out to take a few pictures despite his non-threatening (they were super threatening, in renjun's mind) threats. when jeno shows him the picture, his hands fly up to his hair and touch the tiny bubbles of hair tentatively. chenle's previous shriek of panic subsides into a smaller noise of gentle confusion. he takes jeno's phone and switches it to camera, seeing what it looks like from different angles.

" _thank you for these, chenle. they're super cute._ "

chenle blushes, pushes away renjun's face as his self-defence mechanism. " _shut up._ "

—

the remainder of the day is spent binge watching whatever shitty movie on netflix they can find, with donghyuck occasionally booing and throwing food at the screen, which mark will instantly reprimand him for. he has no actual bite to his words, renjun notes, rather a fond sort of exasperation towards the younger boy.

chenle is napping on his shoulder, curled into a little ball and wrapped tightly in a blanket. renjun had attempted to braid his hair into two french braids, which had quickly failed after he ran out of hair and had to tie it off. it curls around his face messily, and renjun wonders when he ever felt like this much of an older brother.

"bedtime," mark announces when their sixth shitty movie finishes, hushing the groans he gets in response. "be quiet, the babies are sleeping."

jisung ends up being carried to his bed by jeno, who throws him over his shoulder carelessly and ignores jaemin's hushed worries about waking him up or possibly hurting him. jeno shrugs it off, wishes them all a good night's sleep, and trudges off in the direction of the bedrooms with jisung still snoozing on his shoulder.

renjun has to ask for help to carry chenle to bed. mark helps him like the angel he is, while donghyuck insists on shutting the electrical devices down and tending to the kitchen when it's already clean. it's okay, though. renjun will get him back somehow.

when they set chenle down on the bed, he squirms around in search of a heat source and lets out little snuffling noises. his arms make their way around renjun's waist, gripping him tightly.

mark snickers behind his hand. "have fun with trying to get him off you. sleep well."

renjun probably won't, but he resigns to his fate, maneuvering his body around to a somewhat comfortable position and making sure that the both of them have enough blanket to keep them warm in the night.

he hopes his little space buns will still be intact when he wakes up. he wants them to be.

**Author's Note:**

> think knock knock era jeongyeon if u want a reference
> 
> [carrd!!](https://cherrywin.carrd.co/)


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